Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of refuse truck lift arm fabrication and shipping thereof.
Related Art
The refuse industry has always used welding to assemble the lift arms on refuse trucks so that they are strong enough to lift dumpsters and the like. Traditionally, these arms were constructed of four flat pieces of steel whose edges were welded together to form the corners of a box; that is, a long arm piece with a rectangular cross section. The long pieces were then welded together, usually at an angle, to produce the familiar overhead lift arms. Because welding tends to distort the metal being welded, it has often been difficult to produce arms that are aligned properly.
Refuse truck lift arms typically have two, three or more long sections that are not parallel. Shipping thee arms has required large, expensive packaging.